Traffic woe hits AFC as they lose out to struggling Histon

Sportsdesk

AFC Dunstable fell to a 2-1 defeat at Histon on Tuesday night on an evening where the side were hit badly by traffic problems before kick-off.

The A421 north of Bedford was closed and diversions put in place, which saw the bulk of the AFC players not get to the ground until 7.15pm.

It was even worse for skipper Leon Cashman and Nathan Frater, as they missed the kick off, robbing the visitors of two hugely influential players.

Boss Steve Heath said: “My preparation was all over the place. I only had nine players at the ground at 7pm and the teamsheet needed to be handed in to the referee.

“I had no idea what time players would arrive, so everything was up in the air. Then when the referee informs me he could put the kick-off back to 8pm but he would report us for a late start, I had no choice but to pick the team with players available to me.”

Finally with 12 players at 7.15pm the team could be announced and apart form the opening 10 minutes, when AFC had a goal chalked off, the upright struck by BJ Christie and Jermaine Hall being denied by the Histon keeper,the team were all out of sorts and looked disjointed.

Histon grabbed their opportunity with both hands and did not look like a team battling relegation as they deserved the points on the night.

Their energy and commitment outshone the weary AFC players and soon they settled into their stride, with keeper Ricky Perks having to be at his agile best to make a low save.

Hoping the half time break would be advantageous to AFC and they could regroup, it looked that way when Christie gave Heath’s side the lead on 57 minutes.

Then a comedy of errors resulted in Histon drawing level only three minutes later. Failing to clear their defensive lines, the ball ping ponged around the AFC goal and when it seemed Courtney Massay was going to clear the ball off the line, he somehow he helped into the back of the net.

Then on 64 minutes, Christie broke clear again, but a he bore down on goal, a great last ditch tackle denied him.

It was now time to bring on Cashman and Frater but three hours sitting in a car, no warm up and then sitting on a cold bench for 30 minutes, meant they could just not get going.